Which to use
“withered” is an adjective and “withers” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,250
- “withered” frequency rank
- #29,892
- “withers” frequency rank
- 62142
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | withered | withers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Shrivelled, shrunken or faded, especially due to lack of water. | The part of the back of a four-legged animal that is between the shoulder blades; in many species the highest point of the body and the standard place to measure the animal's height. |
Where the eye mixes withered and withers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: withered vs withers
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: withered is /ˈwɪðɚd/ while withers is /ˈwɪð.ɚz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
withered is recorded at frequency rank #32,250, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈwɪðɚd/. withers is at rank #29,892, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪð.ɚz/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 62142, this pair ranks #90,169 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of withered vs withers
Shared letters: ehirtw. Private to "withered": d. Private to "withers": s.
"withered" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "withers" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "withered" and "withers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "withered" or "withers" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "withered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "withers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,169 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "withered" and "withers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Watters vs withers". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #90,169 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.